Dara Treseder

"In the face of difficult circumstances, be responsive, not reactive, Dara advises. There are things you can’t control, and there are things you can control. Separate the two."

"I’m able to bring everything that I have to offer to this position, which is wonderful, because I know that as a Black woman, people don’t always get those opportunities."

"Chase down opportunities, especially the ones that frighten you a little bit. Those are the ones that will ultimately yield the most personal growth, satisfaction, and value."

"Connecting with people is the only way you can build a successful business. Try to find people who you think will disagree with you, especially early on. You may not change your idea, but you will refine it, if needed, and strengthen your conviction."

"Mutually beneficial relationships. Helping others has helped me throughout my career. Business leads come from people unexpectedly, often months after a random discussion. And this all starts with trying to figure out how to help others. I have learned over the years to focus on what I can give instead of what I can get. It’s a discipline that I continue to strive to uphold."

"Success is not final; failure is not fatal."

"I realized that a core part of this has to be the elevation of our brand and telling our story in a more creative way, in a more engaging way, on a bigger scale"

"We had the insights, we had the data, we had the stories — we just had to start acting on them"

"Leadership is never a solo act. The best leaders lift as they rise, creating environments where people feel valued, challenged and empowered to do their best work"

"As a leader, it’s easy to focus on what’s going to happen, and how. Spending time going through the ‘why’ really helped the team rally and come together"

"It’s really about cohesively thinking of the job to be done, thinking about the tools in your toolkit and then bringing these things together in a way that drives results. I think a lot of myself as a conductor of an orchestra"

"There are not a lot of Black women that get to grace stages like this ... And, for me, I’m trying to demystify that"

"We need a world where more people in positions of power reflect the population, and so I think about how I can contribute to that in a small way"

"This was an NBDB [never been done before]"

"This is a strategic brand partnership, but to actually get it all the way through, it had to be a cross-functional initiative, right?"

"I knew there was authenticity there"

"When you’re taking these risks, I always give the credit to the team, but you have to be willing to say, ‘Who’s the executive sponsor? Who is this hanging on?’ And you have to be willing to say, ‘Hey, this is all me.’ And so having that courage gives the team permission. Because when you show that you’re willing to take a risk, you’re willing to go out on a limb, that’s where great things happen, because you unlock the creativity of your team. But if you create a culture where no one wants to take any risks, you don’t get any reward"

"I want to become… I’m not going to be so bold as to say an expert, but I want to make sure that I know enough to be able to make good decisions. I know enough to be curious. I know enough to allocate resources in the right way"

"What I say to my team is that AI is raising the floor and the ceiling. You have to be AI proficient, but that’s just the floor, right? How do we crack and break through the ceiling"

"I use AI now almost every hour of every working day"

"You cannot just use AI at a basic level. You have to treat it as additional horsepower. If my seven-year-old could use a gen-AI tool to make a movie and if you, as someone with 20 years of experience, produce the exact same thing, then yes, we have more content, but more isn’t necessarily better"

"I want people who are swimming, not skimming"

"Too many people skim – they read a 50-word post on LinkedIn and now they think they’re an expert. I need people who are actually curious, who ask questions before they jump to judgment, people who listen to understand, not just to respond. I’m looking for people who have courage… when there’s tension, that’s when you have great work. You have to find people who have the courage to take risks"

"The walk track is the talk track. We do the work, then we talk about it"